Ernest Bristow Farrar (7 July 1885 – 18 September 1918) was an English composer, pianist and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Life

Ernest Farrar was born in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, but moved in 1887 to

Micklefield Micklefield is a village and civil parish east of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It neighbours Garforth, Aberford and Brotherton and is close to the A1 Motorway. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. The population as of the 2011 ...

in Yorkshire, where his father was a clergyman. The rest of his life was very much centred in the north of England. He was educated at

Leeds Grammar School Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physically ...

, where he began organ studies. His studies at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

did not progress beyond his matriculation. In May 1905 he won a scholarship to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. There he studied with Sir

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...

and Sir

Walter Parratt Sir Walter Parratt (10 February 184127 March 1924) was an English organist and composer. Biography Born in Huddersfield, son of a parish organist, Parratt began to play the pipe organ from an early age, and held posts as an organist while still ...

and began friendships with

Frank Bridge Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Life Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845-1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a m ...

and

Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer (, 8 October 1882 – 29 November 1957) was an Irish composer, mainly of operas and vocal music, among them the first musical settings of poems by James Joyce. Biography Palmer was born of Protestant Irish parents in S ...

. He also took up several posts as organist in All Saints' Dresden, St Hilda's, South Shields and Christ Church, High Harrogate. At Harrogate, he worked closely with local conductor

Julian Clifford Julian Seymour Clifford (London, 28 September 1877 – Hastings, 27 December 1921) was an English conductor, composer and pianist particularly associated with the orchestras at Harrogate and Hastings, which he carried to a high level of accompl ...

and took on the 14-year-old

Gerald Finzi Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...

as a composition pupil. In 1913, he married Olive Mason in South Shields. His best man at the wedding was

Ernest Bullock Sir Ernest Bullock (1890–1979) was an English organist, composer, and teacher. He was organist of Exeter Cathedral from 1917 to 1928 and of Westminster Abbey from 1928 to 1941. In the latter post he was jointly responsible for the music at th ...

. His career was cut short by the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, as he enlisted in the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

in 1915 and joined the regiment in August 1916. He was commissioned as

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

, 3rd Battalion

Devonshire Regiment The Devonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that served under various titles and served in many wars and conflicts from 1685 to 1958, such as the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. In 1958 ...

on 27 February 1918. Farrar was killed on the Western Front at the Battle of Epehy Ronssoy, near Le Cateau in the Somme Valley south, west of Cambrai, on 18 September 1918. He had been at the front for two days. His grave lies just outside the churchyard wall in

Ronssoy Ronssoy () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and terri ...

Communal Cemetery Extension, in a corner under a few trees. A

Requiem Mass A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

was said at Micklefield, on 29 September, the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. A concert was dedicated to his memory at Harrogate by Julian Clifford on 17 September 1919, including the tone-poem ''Lights Out'', written expressly for Farrar, and Farrar's ''Variations in G On An Old British Sea-Song'' for piano and orchestra.

Works and legacy

Despite his short life, Farrar wrote a large body of music for orchestra, voices and organ. His works include ''The Blessed Damozel'', a ''Celtic Suite'' and the song cycle ''Vagabond Songs''. Two orchestral pieces, the suite ''English Pastoral Impressions'' and the ''Three Spiritual Studies'' (for string orchestra) were published posthumously under the

Carnegie Collection of British Music __NOTOC__ The Carnegie Collection of British Music was founded in 1917 by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, Carnegie Trust to encourage the publication of large scale British musical works. Composers were asked to submit their manuscripts to an a ...

imprint. However, apart from a few songs his works are now rarely performed.

Stephen Banfield Stephen David Banfield (born 1951) is a musicologist, music historian and retired academic. He was Elgar Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham from 1992 to 2003, and then Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music at the University of Br ...

has identified several characteristic traits in Farrar's music, representative of the English pre-war era: the use of folksong (''English Pastoral Impressions''); "muscular" settings of

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

(in the choral suite ''Out of Doors'', Op. 14); and intimate lyricism (in ''Margaritae sorori'', a choral setting of words by

W. E. Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem " Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the ...

from 1916).Banfield, Stephen: "Farrar, Ernest Bristow", in ''Grove Music Online''
/ref> Some of his orchestral music has been recorded by the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, W ...

on the Chandos label, and some of his songs and organ works have been recorded too. Today, Farrar is perhaps best known as the teacher of Gerald Finzi, who was deeply affected by Farrar's death.McVeagh, Diana: ''Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music'' (2010), pp. 9, 14-15
/ref>

was also deeply affected, and dedicated his Piano Sonata to the memory of Farrar.Jenner, Simon: ''Composers, Trauma and the First World War: The Sprouted Poppy-rooted Veins of British Pastoral Music'' (2014)
/ref>

References

External links

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farrar, Ernest 1885 births 1918 deaths 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century organists Academics of the Royal College of Music Alumni of the Royal College of Music British Army personnel of World War I British male organists British military personnel killed in World War I Devonshire Regiment officers English classical composers English classical organists English male classical composers Musicians from Kent People educated at Leeds Grammar School People from Lewisham Male classical organists